Welcome‎ > ‎EU VAT Checker‎ > ‎

Configuration

Installation

  • General installation instructions can be found here

 

  • Within System->Configuration->Tax->Blue Jalappeno Vat Checker you should find the extensions settings.

  • Ensure you have enabled the TAX/VAT field under System>Configuration> Customer Configuration >Name and Address Options
  • In Magento CE v1.7 and Enterprise/Professional v1.12, Magento have introduced some VAT validation via another VAT number field. This should be disabled if you intend to use Blue Jalappeno EU VAT Checker.



Tax Configuration

Before configuring the extension up you will need to configure your tax settings and customer group settings.

Tax Class


You will need to make a customer tax class under "sales->tax->customer tax classes" for your tax exempt customers. Do not apply any tax rules to this customer tax class.

Customer Group

You will need to make a customer group for your tax exempt customers, you can do this by navigating to "Customers->Customer groups" and creating a new one called, for example, EU Tax Exempt Customers. You should choose the tax class you have just created for this customer group.

Now anyone in that customer group won't get charged tax as there's no associated tax rules with that new customer group/customer tax class.

If you are enabling the feature to recheck customers VAT details if the VIES system is unavailable, you will need ANOTHER customer group to hold these customers e.g. EU Business Unchecked. During registration or checkout, if the VIES system is unavailable, customers are saved to this group and checkout will complete without errors. The next time the customer logs in, their VAT number will be rechecked and their customer group membership will be updated. You can choose to tax these customers by making the customer tax class of EU Business Unchecked to be a taxable class e.g. Retail. If you wish to assume their VAT number is valid, then assign the same tax class as EU Tax Exempt Customers.

Extension Configuration

Configuration Value

Explanation
Enabled Set this to "yes" when you're happy with the configuration
Once Validated Add to This Customer Group Choose the group you have just created. This is the group with no tax associated to it.
Validate Syntax of VAT Number This will manually check the syntax of the number before sending the request to VIES.
Validate via European VIES Set to Yes to verify the VAT number. If you set this to No, every VAT number will automatically be approved.
Verification Failure Message Shows this message to the customer if their VAT number is invalid.
Bad Syntax Message Shows this message to the customer when the syntax is incorrect.
VIES Service Unavailable Message Shows this message if the VIES service is down and you have not configured advanced settings to approve anyway or save customer for approval later
Validate VAT Number for these countries Check VAT number if the billing country is in this list.

Advanced Configuration

Approve if European VIES Unavailable If VIES is down for some reason should the extension assume the number is valid.
Approve if European VIES fails for another reason If the response from VIES is corrupt/fail should we ignore this and assume the number is correct.
If VIES is Unavailable, Add To Group To Be Rechecked If VIES is unavailable, should customers be saved in a seperate group and the next time they log in, their VAT number will be rechecked
Customer Group To Be Rechecked If you select Yes above, choose a SEPERATE customer group here e.g. EU Business Unchecked.
Customer Groups To Be Ignored For Validation Customers in these groups will not have their customer group changed. Use this if you manually move customers to a seperate group e.g. Wholesale customers with different pricing
Ignore VAT numbers outside of selected EU countries Customers with VAT number from a country you choose not to validate e.g. your own country, will be ignored and still taxed. If set to No then VAT numbers from these countries will return as invalid and the customer cannot checkout or register with it.


Checking your configuration

Once you've installed and configured EU VAT Checker, to check your setup ensure you have:

  1. Enabled the extension in the configuration panel
  2. Specified your new customer group only for EU exempt customers
  3. Selected countries that will be validated in the configuration
Once you have confirmed the above, edit an existing customer or create a new customer from the admin panel, specifying a valid EU VAT number from a country you selected in 3 above. Once saved, they should be moved to the customer group you specified in 2 above.

Handling VIES Service Unavailability

As mentioned previously, EU VAT Checker is dependent upon the EU VIES service to validate customer's VAT numbers. This service has frequent down time and as such we have included several options to handle this situation. The following are some example configurations depending on your requirements.

When VIES is down, I want the customer to contact me directly to validate their VAT number

Use the following settings:

Configuration Option

Value
Enabled Yes
Once Validated Add to This Customer Group <your customer group>
Validate Syntax of VAT Number Yes
Validate via European VIES Yes
VIES Service Unavailable Message <your custom message when VIES is unavailable>

Advanced Configuration

Approve if European VIES Unavailable No
Approve if European VIES fails for another reason No
If VIES is Unavailable, Add To Group To Be Rechecked No

Customer Group To Be Rechecked

Leave blank

When VIES is down, I want the customer to checkout anyway and their VAT number to be validated next time they log in

You will need to create a second customer group to hold the customers until they are revalidated e.g. EU Business VAT Exempt UNVALIDATED. If you wish to apply tax to this customer group, ensure you set a taxable customer tax class. If you do not wish to charge them tax then apply the customer tax class you created earlier with no tax applied.
Use the following settings:

Configuration Option

Value
Enabled Yes
Once Validated Add to This Customer Group <your customer group>
Validate Syntax of VAT Number Yes
Validate via European VIES Yes
VIES Service Unavailable Message This message will never be shown so you can leave blank

Advanced Configuration

Approve if European VIES Unavailable No
Approve if European VIES fails for another reason No
If VIES is Unavailable, Add To Group To Be Rechecked Yes

Customer Group To Be Rechecked

Select the group you created to hold these customers e.g. EU Business VAT Exempt UNVALIDATED

When VIES is down, I want to assume the number is valid and assign to the valid group

Use the following settings:

Configuration Option

Value
Enabled Yes
Once Validated Add to This Customer Group <your customer group>
Validate Syntax of VAT Number Yes
Validate via European VIES Yes
VIES Service Unavailable Message This message will never be shown so you can leave blank

Advanced Configuration

Approve if European VIES Unavailable Yes
Approve if European VIES fails for another reason No
If VIES is Unavailable, Add To Group To Be Rechecked No

Customer Group To Be Rechecked

leave blank
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